Disney Infinity (Xbox 360) Review

Disney tries it’s hand at the emerging ‘toys to life’ genre with Disney Infinity. More than that though, the entire game is a love letter to fans of the classic studio.

I really wanted to like Disney Infinity a lot, and I mean A LOT. I’m a big fan of what Activision has done over the last two years with the Skylanders brand and I think the toys to life ‘genre’ is absolutely terrific for a couple of reasons. First off, it’s an idea that not only really took off and proved popular with gamers, but also gave the toy market a badly needed shot in the arm.

Skylanders toys are one of the top toy lines in the US right now and that’s directly related to the game and the genre that it created. As a toy fan, who doesn’t want to see the industry get dinged up any more than it already has in this new millennium, I like that. I don’t however, like Skylanders just because of that. Bottom line, the games are fun and imaginative- with or without the inaction figure component.

This is one of the problems that I have with Disney Infinity. There’s a lot going on here to like, tons in fact, but there are some lingering issues and they kind of sour the experience to some degree. But lets start at the top.

Inside the Disney Infinity starter box, you’ll find a copy of the game, three Disney Infinity figures (Jack Sparrow, Mr.Incredible and Sully from Monsters Inc) and a power base for you to plug those figures into. You’ll also get a token to use with the base, to get you familiar with the idea of buying these blind-bagged little guys that can unlock certain things in the main game.

Sugar Rush!

If you’ve ever played Skylanders, then you know roughly how things go from here- you fire up the game and plop one of the character figures onto the pad. After that, the character you have placed comes to ‘life’ on the screen. Now, in Skylanders, that’s where it begins and ends as the game features one story to play through even though you can use any of the dozens of character figures to do so.

In Disney Infinity placing your character and starting the game gets you to the Toy Box mode. Toy Box is an open world canvas of sorts where you can build anything you like… eventually. You’ll need to unlock most of the stuff that you’ll actually want to use. This actually isn’t all that hard and happens pretty organically as you play. Busting up crates and doing other things in-game gets you blue orbs that count towards your available reserves so you can buy new things to play with.

There’s some really cool stuff in here too like items from Ducktales, Aladdin and any other number of Disney properties. It is kind of annoying that you can’t actually select what you want and buy it as everything’s random, including which items you can pick from at any given time. If you play the game a ton though, it won’t be too terribly long before you probably have everything you want- but still.

Toy Box isn’t just some walk in the park place where you can build a passive town or scene with all this stuff either, you can construct almost whatever you can think up in terms of landscaping too. Making structures like a race track or even a desert city, complete with the guards from Aladdin, are all possible. Hopefully, with future DLC there’ll be even more settings and items to use, but there’s a solid selection right off the top that you probably won’t get bored with for a while.

All of this can be a bit tough to control, nothing that should hold you up for too long mind you, but placing items at times can be a chore. In particular, I had a devil of a time putting new land pieces in the place where I wanted them when I started to really make a world and not just screw around. Oh and you can do that too by the way. Making a mixed up place where the sky reflects a version of Alice’s Wonderland and killer robots run amok is very possible and will probably take up the majority of your time in the mode when you start. Also notable here is that the menu is more than a little convoluted and the sheer number of things you can do can be a double-edged sword and even get pretty daunting at times.

Yep, this is exactly what it looks like

On the other side of the coin from the Toy Box mode are the Playsets. Just like in the action figure ‘world’ playsets are complete settings for you to play in and worlds all their own. Remember as a kid getting all those Star Wars sets that reflected one of the scenes from the movies? This is the same idea except you get to play in the environment with your on screen character instead of your plastic, real world figure.

A trio of playsets all wrapped up in one clear plastic piece are included in the set to get you started. The three sets are themed to fit the three figures that are included and give you a nicely varied experience. Each one plays pretty differently and actually supplies a decent amount of play time too. They’re almost complete games unto themselves and there’s more on the way as Disney Interactive currently has a Lone Ranger set available and a Toy Story set on the way.

It’s in this way that it’s easy to see that Infinity is really meant to be a platform. Much like the way that Zen Studios’ pinball title constantly evolves with multiple tables released for it throughout the year, Disney Infinity can go forward with new playsets seeing retail release, thus giving gamers more game to play without a full-on sequel really being necessary. It’s a pretty cool mechanic, but one that I’m not sold on completely.

This might sound odd since I did say a lot of pretty nice things about it, but I would have preferred a central narrative be included in the game where you could battle through something like a nexus of Disney films and TV shows, swapping characters all the way. I’m not saying that I think that the playsets and the whole platform format are bad ideas, not at all, I just found that the Toy Box mode in and of itself really didn’t do it for me and I would have liked to a have had a cohesive game where I could swap characters (since that’s not something you can do in a playset).

Final Thoughts

When I think about it, there’s a lot to like and a surprising amount of things not to like about Disney Infinity. The upside for the game is that the things that aren’t so hot are neither glaring nor gamebreakers.

Toy Box mode is monstrous and has so much going on that it can almost be too much at times, and the individual playsets can be a little too limiting here and there since you’re forced to use only the characters that match with the worlds they exist in. Of course, Toy Box is also all kinds of fun once you really get going and, if you’re so inclined, you can make some incredible stuff with it.

And the playsets, from what I’ve seen, could actually stand on their own almost across the boards and provide unique game experiences fans of the individual universes that they represent, with some great fun. I can see the future is going to be pretty bright for Infinity too as there are dozens of Disney properties that can be made into playsets and accompanying figures.

As it is, Disney Infinity is solid now and should be even better given some time.

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Jason's been knee deep in videogames since he was but a lad. Cutting his teeth on the pixely glory that was the Atari 2600, he's been hack'n'slashing and shoot'em'uping ever since. Mainly an FPS and action guy, Jason enjoys the occasional well crafted title from every genre.

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Big, bold, and bloody; director Gareth Evans’ follow-up to the groundbreaking and critically praised first film is every bit the sequel you would hope it to be- and then some. I’ll start this off by saying that I haven’t seen the original The Raid. If we’re being totally honest, I…

Unravel the mystery that is ‘steampunk’ with Steampunk: An Illustrated History of Fantastical Fiction, Fanciful Film and Other Victorian Visions. Steampunk seems to be one of those genres which makes full use of its long and storied history. Even though it’s only been around as a true genre for a…

Welcome to the latest edition of our retro review series! Today we are going to be looking at Kingdom Hearts 2, an amazing third person RPG developed by Square Enix. KH2 does a masterful job of weaving famous worlds and characters from Disney and Final Fantasy. Before we begin, I…

Steelseries enters the iOS 7 hardware competition with a fully-featured, console quality gamepad set to bring the living room experience to you iDevice. For some time now, the touchscreen has been something of a sticking point for traditional console (and even PC) gamers who play games on their mobile devices….

Capcom and developer Double Helix bring a rebooted Strider to consoles that not only updates, but outdoes and improves upon envy version that’s come before (including the arcade original) in every way. The arcade is probably where a good deal of gamers (at least the older set) know Strider from….

Mobile strategy title Line of Defense Tactics - Tactical Advantage comes to the PC, but should it have bothered setting it’s waypoint from iOS to Steam? Steam has proved to be a hotbed of innovation in the past few years, creating unique and fantastic se of experiences not found on…

The Autobots little yellow scout gets a starring role in his own DVD compilation of episodes from the hit Transformers Prime cartoon show. Bumblebee is easily one of the most well known as best loved characters from pretty much all of the Transformers various incarnations over the years. Originating with…

Press Play’s game about a boy and his marker comes to Xbox One in fine form. Get ready to doodle with nature. Who wouldn’t like the ability to warp the very fabric of the world around them? This kind of ability has been one of the mainstays in simulation genre’s…

Crytek’s game about the Roman Legion finally sees release as a launch game for the Xbox One- and is more fun than it probably has a right to be. I first played Ryse at the San Diego Comic Con last July and right from the opening moments of the amphibious…

Ultra-hard space-shooting action so good, you’ll keep coming back despite the urge to chuck your keyboard across the room. When it comes to gaming, why do most people crave difficulty? What is the point of playing games that are extremely difficult; something along the lines of a rougelike? You end…

Outlast was produced and developed by Red Barrels Studio, whose last know title was…Outlast. Yes, they have only created one game, but that is okay because the one game they have made is absolutely fantastic (except for the ending). I love horror games like Amnesia, and SCP Containment Breach. I…

Final Exam is a very fun game… when it isn’t trying to rip off other games. What we’re talking about here isn’t exactly cutting edge; it’s a four player co-op, zombie themed shooter where three men and one woman find themselves fighting seemingly infinite hordes of zombies. The zombies range…

Dust: An Elysian Tail is the closest I have felt to playing in a cartoon for a very long time. I love this game; I will play it again and again (who knows maybe a third time after that). Dust is a cartoon styled beat-‘em-up, with many RPG elements. Comedy and enjoyment…

Raiden slashes into the PC in a spot-on port of last year’s Metal Gear spinoff from Konami and PlatinumGames. Japanese culture has become something of a hallmark in American society through the 90’s and early 2000’s. This came about due to the growing interest in both anime, manga and somewhat…

Zen Studios brings the genre-mashing Castlestorm to the Wii U. So how is storming castles on the GamePad? At what point does a game stop being “Indie” and progress into the much more prevalent ‘general gaming’ area? Something like Minecraft (which has been bought over 33 million times) is it…

Plantronics might not be the biggest name in game-related equipment, but that might be trending a different way if they keep making headsets like the Rig. I don’t know about you, but I mainly know the Plantronics brand from headsets for telephones- notice that I didn’t say ‘playing video games’…

Killzone returns yet again with an all-new story and (mostly) new setting for the launch of the PlayStation 4 with a game that’s visually spectacular, but ultimately somewhat stilted and rough around the edges. I don’t know what it is with Killzone. It just doesn’t seem to have it. You know…

Steelseries goes to the frozen north for their latest headset, but the new Siberia Elite will leave you anything but cold. I have to admit, while I’ve used Steelseries’ products in the past, I’m almost completely unfamiliar with their headset line. Iy’s not that I had a particularly ‘bad’ image…

Infinity Ward launches a brand new Call of Duty franchise that brings all the usual explosive campaign moments and in-your-face multiplayer with it. Call of Duty has, since its first days on the PC when it went head-to-head with Medal of Honor, been an absolute beast of a game. It…

The legend lives on in a direct sequel to the SNES classic A Link to the Past- and one of the very best games released this year. I really hate to call a game an ‘instant classic’. It seems like such an overused term that’s thrown around by seemingly everyone…

Dark Horse gets classic with some horror from way back in the latest release from the Eerie Archives. It’s somewhat late in the year to be reviewing something that is usually considered “Halloween material,” but such as the collection I will be reviewing here. We here at Brutal Gamer like…

Like getting a new controller without getting a new controller. KontrolFreek has been around for a while now and, while the idea behind them is pretty simple, it’s also one that’s wholly original- each pack of KontrolFreeks contains a pair of thumbstick-altering stick covers. These covers snap right onto both…

Microsoft’s successor to the popular Xbox 360 has arrived, but is the all in one Xbox One the key to the brand’s continued success? This past generation, the Xbox 360 was my de facto go-to console for gaming. Now, don’t get me wrong here, the PS3 and the Wii both…

Sony’s hotly anticipated PlayStation 4 arrives, but does it have the punch that the electronics giant needs to get back on top of the console game? I’ve been a big fan of Sony’s in the past. Both the PSOne and PS2 are two of my absolute favorite consoles of all…

Ellen Page gets her ghost on. Hooray, or boo? In 2013, the line between film and video game seems to be getting more and more blurred with each AAA release. Call of Duty, undeniably one of the most successful franchises of all time, seems to be equally loved and despised for…

One of the PS4′s first games is also one of the most addictive of the year. There’s been nothing splashy about the launch of Resogun. A shooter from developer Housemarque here in the initial day of Sony’s newest console. It’s premise is a pretty simple one too- the game features…

Take one part pulp-novel, one part WWII and two parts action- mix violently. It’s a shame seeing how modern society has lost the thrill of true adventures. The world as it was in the late 19th and early 20th century was one that captured the hearts and minds of millions….

Telltale’s latest adventure series “The Wolf Among Us” follows the lives of fairy tale characters, where the popular belief that “they all lived happily ever after” is a lie. The Wolf Among Us is the follow-up series to Telltale’s masterwork The Walking Dead. In many ways, Wolf shares a lot…

Mobile mega-hit Doodle Jump leaps onto Xbox Live with a Kinect-ed game that just might be more fun than the original. If you’re one of the billion or so people who’ve played one of the plethora of mobile versions of Doodle Jump that are out there in the ether, then…

Activision’s Skylanders franchise continues with some SWAP-able characters and a brand new villain on the 3DS. I’m a fairly recent Skylanders player. Though the franchise is beyond huge in terms of sales and fan support, I had only played the original title for a short time before I had the…

Demons, katanas and plenty of Wang. It must be one hell of a job to reboot a classic franchise. What do you keep? What do you throw away? How about the core elements – have they aged well? Is the basic concept even relevant anymore? Flying Wild Hog have taken…

With the rapidly approaching holiday season on the horizon, nothing eases the mind more then a slow paced and unique gaming experience. Once generic COD clones #1-5 release, it’ll just turn into a blur of indistinguishable gun fire and explosions. Thus I decided to enjoy a much slower and interesting…

Disney tries it’s hand at the emerging ‘toys to life’ genre with Disney Infinity. More than that though, the entire game is a love letter to fans of the classic studio. I really wanted to like Disney Infinity a lot, and I mean A LOT. I’m a big fan of…

Rockstar’s headline series ups the ante for open world titles, for the franchise- and maybe for video games in general. Grand Theft Auto releases are marquee events for most gaming fans for a lot of different reasons. Some like the criminal element vibe that the series puts out, some like…

In this day and age, books are becoming less and less physical and more digital. As technology continues to spread to more and more people, apps begin to replace integral parts of society. What was once a mom and pop bookstore is now available from amazon. I can understand why…

Steel Series’ latest is an in-ear headset with a memory foam twist that’s great for tunes and games alike. I have an odd history with in-ear headsets in the sense that they typically don’t stay in my ears. I have no idea why exactly, but headphones that are made to…

A real FPS for Sony’s handheld? Really this time? Show of hands, who was massively disappointed by Resistance on the Vita? Call of Duty? The fact that Sony is holding up a translation of BioShock for some reason? The bottom line is that for first-person shooter fans, the PS Vita…

A classic form the age of 16-bit consoles comes to PC and Mac. The Chaos Engine originally released on the Amiga back in the early ’90s from The Bitmap Brothers, but you might know it by its other name – Soldiers of Fortune. Along with a few minor changes here…

Gilad Anni-Padda’s monthly book kicks off with a tale thousands of years in the making. Gilad, if you’re unaware, is the brother of Armstrong from Archer & Armstrong fame. The big guy’s actual name is Aram Anni-Padda and he (along with Gilad) is a member of three immortal brothers who…

Dark Horse’s newest addition to their growing line of superhero books is an alcohol-powered rage machine in a comic that’s radically different from your usual superhero yarn. Buzzkill is not only ‘different’ than what I’m used to from the world of superheroes, but its wholly original and pretty much unlike…

Yes, The Star Wars- as in George Lucas’ original drafting of the famous space saga. Dark Horse’s vision of this rarely seen classic is definitely different, somewhat strange and undeniably cool. I’ve been a big fan of Star Wars since I was a kid, but I guess that’s no revelation….

Bring glory to the Empire in Sega and Creative Assembly’s Total War: Rome II. Considered by many to be the pinnacle of real-time strategy games, the Total War series has seen massive success in the past few years. With almost a decade passed since the previous installment (Rome: Total War),…

Luigi has been enjoying a nice and cozy spotlight this year with three great games that he gets the spotlight in. Just how well does the final game in the year of Luigi turn out? New Super Luigi U starts out just like New Super Mario Bros U does, except…

Lord Baltimore heads to Budapest on a collision course with destiny… and one damned train. Though I’ve never read a single issue of Baltimore in any form, I’m a big fan of Baltimore co-writer Mike Mignola and his Hellboy and BPRD series’ that see regular publication by Dark Horse Comics. Mignola…

Games that come to define an entire genre are few and far between. The term ‘Metroidvania’ has come to not only suggest a style of gameplay thats been continuously loved for decades, but also a stamp of quality. Metroidvania titles that slip into the “bloody awful” category of gaming releases…

Video games are unlike any other medium ever devised. They act and react to our influence and commands. They are the single most immersive experience you can get, short of a NASA shuttle simulator. They should be allowed to grow and become whatever they choose and stimulate and intrigue us…

Race cars, lasers, aero-planes – Capcom’s Ducktales Remastered was a long time coming, but is it what fans of the classic platformer were looking for in a remake? I have some extremely fond memories of both the Ducktales cartoon show from Disney and the Ducktales video game from Capcom. Both…

Saints Row IV is still just as off-the-wall and ‘nutty in all the right places’ as the previous three games in the series, but it adds so much to the formula that it might as well be the beginning of a whole new franchise. Just to clarify here, anybody who…

Mario and Luigi‘s latest adventure unfolds on the 3DS in Mario and Luigi Dream Team, only this time, instead of being inside the body of a megalomaniac, they explore Luigi’s dreams. The story of this game is much like any other Mario RPG. Princess Peach has one again been kidnapped,…

Atlus and Vanillaware’s long-awaited Dragon’s Crown is a visual tour de force with enough hacking, slashing and role-playing to keep you busy for a long time. If you remember the side-scrolling action titles of the past, specifically Capcom’s Dungeons & Dragons games, then this one’s for you. It’s interesting that…

Tragnarion Studios’ third-person action title has gotten more than its fair share of criticism since it’s launch a few weeks ago, but you know what- it’s not really that bad. It’s not that Scourge: Outbreak is the greatest game in the world, or anything groundbreaking for that matter, but it’s…

Author Steve Niles’ Criminal Macabre (from Dark Horse Comics) crosses over with his classic vampire tale, 30 Days of Night from IDW. The result is one monster event called FInal Night filled with lasting effects for both series’. I’m a relative newbie to both Criminal Macabre and 30 Days of…

Despite some teething problems, this revival of the cult-classic 90s shooter delivers a solid old-school FPS experience. Rise of the Triad is the first game from developer Interceptor Entertainment, a team of roughly 30 people from across the globe and working from home to reboot the cult-classic 90s shooter. Originally…

Originality in a real-time strategy title? Larian Studios’ latest brings a fresh feel to a stale genre. In this day and age, the once great genre of real-time strategy has gone downhill. While only a few marquee titles have released in the past few years, the constant competition and tournaments…

20th Century Fox’ second stab at a solo Wolverine movie presents a smarter, darker version of the character but somehow still falls a bit flat. Wolverine has had a pretty long career on the silver screen at this point. Actor Hugh Jackman has played the feral mutant for almost 13…

A sim with originality, Pro Cycling Manager Season 2013 is definitely something new. The video games industry seems to suffer from sequel desire, this meaning that we tend to enjoy the same rehashed games year after year (Call of Duty). They may get minor improvements but they are usually the…

Neo-old school shooter Painkiller HD mixes its game types with a whole new view on the relentless action. The Painkiller series is seen as one of the founders of the modern FPS genre, along with Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein. These were games that allowed you to shoot hundreds of oncoming…

Monster Hunter arrives on the Wii U with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. The Monster Hunter series has been widely followed by fans since its initial debut in 2004, on the now obsolete PlayStation 2 and is critically acclaimed to be one of the best action series to date. In 2009,…

Marvel Comics’ Deadpool takes his first starring role as High Moon Studios’ crafts a game that’s almost as insane as he is. Deadpool has really shot up in popularity over the last ten years or so. You might not realize just how popular he’s become, or that he’s actually already…

It’s been a long wait for this highly anticipated cross over strategy game. Now that Project x Zone‘s release has finally come to pass, is it living up to the excitement built up over it this past year? Project x Zone is a crossover tactical role playing game involving characters…

Things explode in a big way in Most Wanted Games tribute to the action flicks of yore. Those big budget, super-violent ‘R’ rated action movies from years ago are pretty scarce at this point. I think I can count on one hand the amount of big sci-fi/action films that have…

Take one part Portal, one part Cthulhu, add magnets and shake vigorously. The First-person puzzler genre is nothing new to gamers. Portal is of course the most memorable game in this genre having captivated millions with its mind bending and often perplexing puzzles. It gave us a chance to see…

Tower defense meets physics in a game that is frantically fun, and funny too! CastleStorm is the latest offering from Zen Studios. Featuring some humorously stereotypical medieval characters and a surprisingly intuitive combat system, this is a game you’ll come back to time and again. The story begins with a…

The RTS genre has certainly grown in the past few years with such titles as Starcraft 2 and the upcoming Company of Heroes 2. This quick combat allows for some truly amazing and unexpected games with hundreds or thousands of units involved. Such is the case with Eugen Systems’ recent…

A4Tech’s newest mouse packs a punch with three levels of customization and ‘ultra’ high levels of sensitivity. I wasn’t really familiar with A4Tech’s gaming-centric Bloody line before I sat down to play with the Headshot, but I came away from it impressed. I’m not a super big ‘gear’ guy and…

It’s like Ocean’s 11, only better. I had heard a lot of things about Monaco before I started playing it; it’s complex, there’s a heavy planning stage to each mission, it’s a party game and so on and so forth… Bottom line? I’m very happy to report that all of…

NeocoreGames’ take on the Van Helsing legacy gives the action/RPG genre a kick in the fangs. In the past few years, top down action RTS’ have become the go-to genre for budding gamers. Various gaming leagues have begun taking advantage of this large gaming scene by creating international gaming competitions….

Two years after release, Paradox Studio’s new expansion for Victoria II has arrived in the package that is Heart of Darkness. This expansion doesn’t so much as change the game as it adds deeper and a much more intriguing experience to the table. Its main role is taking the player…

The Metro saga changes publishers with a sequel that impresses on almost every level. Metro: Last Light has had a kind of strange trip on its way to market. Developed by 4A Games, Last Light was left publisher-less when THQ went under in 2012. The game was quickly picked up…

Just like the real R.A.T, only smaller. And wireless. If you’re not familiar with the RAT line of gaming mice (I’m lazy, so I’m just going to forego the abbreviations for this review), they’re some of the most impressive PC peripherals -bar none- that I’ve ever had the pleasure of…

Eador: Masters of the Broken World is a game that tries to do much and mostly succeeds in delivering on its promises, minus a few hitches. This is a rather hard game to explain. Part Turn-based strategy and part RPG, it gives you many options in how to play it….

Take a magical journey down action/RPG lane in Shiro Games love letter to a genre. Evoland is an interesting game. Maybe that’s not the way that Shiro Games would have liked its ode to all things Zelda and Final Fantasy (with a little Diablo/Torchlight thrown in) to have been described,…

SimCity has had a little bit of a rough time getting started with server problems and some general bad press about its ‘always on’ status. The game has stabilized since its launch last month, but is all well in EA and Maxis’ SimUniverse? Starting any new city is bound to…

The survivors return to undead infested paradise in a game that feels hauntingly familiar… not that that’s a bad thing. The first Dead Island was indeed something different. Yes, it’s true that zombies were relatively old hat when it came to video games even back in 2011, but Dead Island made…

Who knew tiny robots racing asynchronously could be so much fun? I was, to say the least, unfamiliar with the concept of ‘asynchronous’ gameplay before I sat down to play Top Bot from Rally Games. I’m not really a ‘racing game’ kind of guy to begin with either, and I…

One of the greatest shooter franchises in gaming returns with a sequel that’s complex, intelligent and beautifully realized. I don’t think there are too many people that would argue that Ken Levine and Irrational Games’ BioShock series has become one of the marquee franchises in modern gaming. Both BioShock and…

Judgement brings Gears of War back with a vengeance in a prequel that you’ll actually want to check out. Prequels can be such a touchy exercise. For the most part, you already know where the story goes and if you’re a fan- you probably know where it’s been as well. I…

The reborn Castlevania series makes the jump to the 3DS with a game that’s both old school and new. Like a lot of long time gamers, I have some great memories of the original Castlevania series on the NES and SNES. For that matter, even the version that appeared on…

Does the latest Dead Space thread the needle and hit on both the action and horror fronts? The Dead Space franchise has become a hallmark for survival-horror titles since its launch in 2008. While franchises like Silent Hill and Resident Evil decided to tread more towards the action route Dead…

Being a firm believer that you can only have too much of a good thing, before it’s completely ruined, I honestly thought that Rebellion were propelling themselves down completely the wrong road when they announced Nazi Zombie Army. By that I mean that Sniper Elite V2 was a decent enough…

Since launching a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, Zen Studio’s Pinball FX2 has quickly become a huge commodity in the Xbox Live Arcade marketplace. With its vast array of tables, along with stellar gameplay, it’s easy to see why. Some of these tables featured in Pinball…

Often the words ‘downloadable online multiplayer shooter’ strike fear into a gamers heart. They’ve not been exactly great over the years, have they? I could probably name one, possibly two that have arrived over the past few years and have been rather good. Usually the genre is full of… well,…

We’ve seen the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat get the current gen treatment, now returns the classic Yu Suzuki arcade fighter, Virtua Fighter 2. After the better part of two decades – does the game still hold up? I originally played Virtua Fighter 2 on the Saturn way…

Brutal arena combat gets a fantasy infusion in the PC versionof PS3 team battler Clan of Champions. Orc versus elf: FIGHT! As a pretty big Lord of the Rings fan (and fan of high-fantasy in general), Clan of Champions looked like it was right up my alley. I mean, there…

Accell’s newest PC add-on transforms that DisplayPort (or mini) into a spare DVI connection. Can you say ‘second screen’? Admittedly, I have an older PC. My rig was a custom built machine with a cross-section of… lets say ‘not top tier’ parts… when I put it together a few years…

The Chief returns in 343 Industries’ first installment of the Halo series. After Bungie signed the franchise over to 343 and Microsoft, fans drew a sharp intake of breath as they feared for their beloved Halo series. There were mixed views about Halo: Reach. But, when Halo 4 got flashed…

Valiant follows its big Summer relaunch event with the debut of an all new Shadowman. Supernatural superhero shenanigans! Reading Shadowman on and off when Valiant first ran with the character years ago, the idea always struck me as kind of cool and I actually made a few attempts to dig…

If you ain’t outta control, you ain’t in control. Okay first of all- I had no idea there even was a drift racing circuit. And I assume that there is one since the intro video for DMC2 clearly shows some real cars sliding around a track… there are even real…

Torchlight 2 is one of the most addictive dungeon crawls I’ve played in years- and yes, I include Diablo III in that statement. Back in the ’90s I absolutely ate up these kinds of games. Isometric dungeon crawlers like the original Diablo (as well as its sequel) and Baldur’s Gate…

The newest piece of gaming tech from MadCatz’ Cyborg Gaming line is also one of the best keyboards you’re ever likely to use. The S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 (which I’m just going to shorten to ‘Strike’ for purposes of laziness) is easily the most impressive keyboard I’ve ever had the pleasure of…

Who knew making pickle ‘n’ tomato lettuce wraps could be so much fun? I’m probably not what you’d call a ‘casual gamer’. I don’t really play stuff like Angry Birds and I think I played Peggle for about a week before I got tired of it and never fired the…

Max Payne returns in an explosive adventure that’s loaded for bear with twists, turns, and some of the best gunplay you’ve ever seen. One of the first things that you’ll notice about Max Payne 3 (providing you’ve played either of the previous games in the series) is that pretty much…

Prototype 2 streamlines the open world anti-hero action of the original while improving on almost every aspect. I might be in the minority here, but I absolutely loved the original Prototype. The sense of freedom and power combined with a very cool storyline and main character won me over in…

The PS3 title heads to Vita. Now you can touch the puzzles that’ll have you beating your head against the wall. An admission before I get into it here- I had never heard of Stardrone (the PS3 version) before I got Stardrone Extreme for review. As a result, I kinda…

Waterfield makes a pretty broad range of cases, bags, and holders for pretty much everything. Now the company is venturing out into the cold, harsh, world of portable gaming. It’s one thing to make a bag for a MacBook Air, or an iPad- as long as the basics are covered…

One of the first real hits from the original lineup of PSP games returns for the launch of that console’s successor. Does the PSV version of Lumines offer anything new? Does it even have to? The long and short is that ‘yes’, it does provide for some new tidbits- but…

A classic Sony franchise revs up for the Vita with stunning graphics and spot on control - but is that enough to save the game from a flaw that’s one of the biggest no-no’s in portable gaming? Yes, Wipeout 2048 has a deep, dark, secret that at times makes you want to chuck…

At first glance Flipper 2: Flush the Goldfish looks like a platformer- a very Earthworm Jim-like platformer. Not the case though as this one’s about as far away from fast action and twitch response as you can get. ‘And why is that’ you ask? Well, that’s because this isn’t really…

Is there really anything not to like about Zen Pinball? For that matter, is there a platform that doesn’t host some version of it? Now with the 3DS’ release, I think we’ve covered all the bases. The funny thing is though, I’m in no way tired of Zen’s vision of…

One of the first WiiWare games comes to the iOS with a fun, accessible, and downright good-looking platformer. Having never played the original Lost Winds, I didn’t know what to expect from the iOS version if the game. From what I did know of the title, it was one of…

Shinobi gets back to it’s 2D roots with a 3D facelift. Back in the early days of console gaming, I logged many an hour battling from left to right as the deadly ninja, Joe Musashi. I wasn’t a big fan of the arcade game that started the franchise off, but…

The new Raptor LK1 keyboard isn’t exactly feature loaded, and it’s not nearly as flashy as some of the competition either. But this little keyboard is packing one feature that almost makes up for all that. Raptor Gaming might not be a name that you’re familiar with, but this relatively…

A reloaded retelling- does Goldeneye 007 Reloaded recapture the glory days of the N64 classic, or is it just a recycled reproduction of shooters gone by? Who doesn’t remember the sublime Nintendo 64 version of Goldeneye? Well, I guess if you weren’t old enough at the time, you wouldn’t- but…

When developer Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum broke onto the scene, comic and action game fans alike applauded. Now their follow-up, Arkham City, seeks to expand on comic book nirvana. More than a good licensed superhero game, Arkham Asylum was great. If you know anything about how comic book characters have…

It’s Instagram, it’s Memory- stop, you’re both right! Instamory is, at it’s core, the classic game of Memory. You know, the one where you have a bunch of cards face down on a table and you flip over a pair at a time until you find all the pairs that…

Picture Minecraft or 3D dot Game Heroes mixed with an arcade racer. Sound fun? Well, yes and no. I really, really wanted to like this game. A lot. And I’m not even all that much of a fan of the genre. Sure I like Forza, I liked Gran Turismo on…

The team of Sega, Gearbox, and Wayforward send the marines back into action to investigate the events of the second Alien film. Does this classically styled side-scroller stay frosty, or is it game over man? Aliens was always a favorite for me among sci-fi movies. In fact, if you look…

Spider-Man 2099 is back along side his classic ‘Amazing’ counterpart for another time-bending tale that sees the two wall crawlers setting out to repair the time/space continuum… and make some bad jokes along the way. Actually, those jokes are some of the best parts of Edge of Time. The voice…

Marvel’s band of merry mutants return to the world of videogames in a somewhat ambitious title that’s more New Mutant than X-Man. As a big X-Men fan, I’ve felt more than a little left out of things with the drastic twists and turns that the various books and their respective characters…

Think a mouse that grows to fit your hand is gimmicky? Read on to find out why the Cyborg R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse might just be the only rodent you’ll ever need. MadCatz’ Rat 7 is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a very cool looking piece of hardware. The…

If you’ve ever played Arkanoid (or Breakout), then you’ve already got an idea of how ArkanoArena plays. But this is one brick breaker that aims to add a little something more to the genre. AA has actually been available for quite a while on the iPad, but Sketch Games has…

The fat arse of the law is back in the second installment of developer Straandlooper’s darkly comic police story- Senseless Acts of Justice. Adventure games of the point-and-click variety have been making a slow comeback the last few years thanks to Telltale Games. The publisher has so far amassed a…

The Mighty Fin is a fish with a mission, survive his vacation. Careful who you book that holiday with kids, or you might get eaten by a seagull You’d think with a name like Shady Sal’s suspiciously cheap Round the World Tour, Fin would have avoided scheduling his trip around…

Picture it, one minute you’re minding your own business and the next- wham! Zombies. Everywhere. Wouldn’t that ruin your day? There’s a glut of zombie games on the market, no doubt about that. In fact, with so many titles taking advantage of the industry’s newest badguy flavor of the week…

A compact USB speaker for my laptop that actually sounds good? Am I hearing this right? Audio hardware maker JLab hasn’t been around all that long- they first opened their doors in 2005 and garnered some attention right off the bat with their b-flex laptop speaker. In a nutshell, the…

Not really a shooter, not really a platformer- MUMBOJUMBO’s casual action title GlowFish HD is like a mash-up of both doused with a very pretty coat of neon. So what exactly is a GlowFish? Well, despite his name, he’s not really a glowing fish. He’s glowing all right- but is…

Does the term ‘old school’ do anything for you? How about ‘Hurricanrana’? If so, then you’ll probably find something to like about Lucha Fury. Much in the vein of games like TMNT: Turtles in Time and X-Men, Lucha Fury is a side-scrolling beat ‘em up with lots of retro appeal….

Indie shooter Beat Hazard has enjoyed some success on Steam and even on Xbox LIVE in the Indies zone. It’s first real expansion, Beat Hazard Ultra, brings the pretty with light bloom a plenty. In fact, the term ‘visually arresting’ comes to mind. This is a beautiful game. There’s really…

Ninjabee and Bacon Wrapped Games bring platforming, puzzle solving and puking to the PC with style as Ancients of Ooga is easily one of the most enjoyable platformers I’ve played in a while, reminiscent of some true classics of the genre like Crash Bandicoot and Oddworld. Though I should clarify that-…

Telltale Games’ Back to the Future adventure title continues on the iPad with the third episode, Citizen Brown. The game, much like the movies that it’s based on, oozes charm- but is it enough to overcome what are some pretty glaring graphical flubs and design choices? I have to be…

TaleWorlds’ newest Mount and Blade takes a historical tilt, and adds gunpowder to it’s formula of swords and mounted combat. The result is a hit and miss affair with a full clip of missed chances, almosts, and sort-ofs. As someone who’s never tried a M&B before, I really didn’t know…